The problem with weight loss industry in 2 screen grabs:

1) If Goop or Covid taught us anything (and social media feed suggests they haven’t), it is that celebrities are NOT your best source of health information. Honestly. Even if they say their doctors agree with them. Sad to say that there are doctors out there who make bad decisions when looking after celebrities, whether it is money or being blinded by the celebrity. Remember how Michael Jackson found a doctor who would even give him anaesthetic for sleep? It’s worth considering that many of these celebrities who are talking about Ozempic may be would not have been prescribed the drug if they hadn’t been celebrities.

2) Weight is NOT beauty. This is a hill I will die on. Weight loss treatments do not belong in the aesthetic or medispa. Obesity is a complex, chronic, progressive, and recurring disease and deserves proper whole-patient medical treatment. Dispensing these drugs as beauty treatments is not in patient’s best interest.

Like most things in our increasingly polarised online media, the truth is in the middle. These drugs are excellent for both Type 2 diabetes and obesity, when prescribed in the right dose, for the right patient, supported by a properly qualified medical team.

These drugs are drugs, and we should think of it like other drugs. For example, asthma inhalers are safe and needed for those with asthma. However, if you don’t need it, it can give you headache, palpitations or tremors.

I’ve included a screen shot from yet another unsolicited DM I received. (Now, I’ll be clear: I do love the DMs from patients and followers suggesting questions or topics for the Blog or posts or sending links. Less so the DMs from occasional conspiracy theorist suggesting that I am suppressing the truth about things like elderberry kumbucha.)